Missing
by DYlogger
Summary: Bart and Cissie both know they have something missing from their lives.  They just don't know what.  Pre-Bart/Cissie; for Minerva Solo on LJ


** Missing **

**By: DYlogger, for Minerva Solo for JBBS 2010 over on LJ**

**A/N: Thanks to Hooked on FFN and a friendly acquaintance of mine for betaing!**

**This is for Minerva Solo, for 2010's JBBS Secret Santa Exchange. Minerva asked for current era Teen Titans and Young Justice. I took that to mean any time that includes both TT and YJ. (Or did you mean current era with the YJ/TT characters?) This fic is DCU; Teen Titans (III); mentions YJ, and has multiple undefined time-skips between pre- and post- Kon's death. It was completed December 12, 2010.**

**Minerva also asked for comic canon, Cissie at college, and sweet romance (though she didn't specify between whom). I gave her the first two and made one-sided Bart/Cissie pre-romance, because I dislike Bart/Cissie and I wasn't getting bunnies from her other two requests. She said nay to excessive angst- but there is angst in this. I hope this isn't too excessive for you!**

**Anyway, writing this for Minerva was rather disconcerting since she appears to have two novels published and a short story in a collection of short stories to raise money for Médecins sans Frontières (or Doctors without Borders to non-French-speaking countries unlike Canada).**

**So, Minerva, I hope the government hasn't overpaid you (?) and you get to go on your vacation! Yes, I looked through your blog. Hope you and your f-list enjoy your holidays!**

* * *

I can't believe it. Young Justice disbands, the Titans form, and where am I? I'm just… gone. Gone from their world, just like that. Replaced with another archer. Not that I have the right to go bitch about who's on the team that replaced the friends that I love. I lost that right when I left Young Justice.

Right now, my friends' lives are probably more screwed up as mine. Kon's dead. Cassie's in a cult. Robin's off doing… whatever he does to mourn his best friend. Probably trying to clone him or something. I don't even know what happened to Bart. Impulse has been replaced by Kid Flash, who is a completely different person. I try to stay away from them on the news, but I seem to gravitate toward that direction for the closure that I'm not getting. I can't help but think that I could have done something to prevent that.

I need to learn to move on. I'm a normal college girl now. Just Cissie King-Jones. Cissie King-Jones, the ex-Olympic gymnast, studying to make a future for herself.

Oh, who am I kidding? Normalcy's never going to be part of my life. I love school, but I miss my friends. I don't regret leaving Young Justice for my studies, but I can't help but think there could have been a way for me to keep up with both my lives. It was never a rash- or dare I say it- impulsive, decision, but it was a hard one.

What I wouldn't give to see them again.

* * *

"Dude, what's up?"

"Oh. Hey, Kon."

"…Okay, now I know something's wrong for sure. You're never this mopey. Or, well… slow."

"I thought you liked it when I'm at normal speed for you guys."

"No, you're still fast. Just not as usual."

"Yes, well the relative speed I'm going at right now to you guys is-"

"I don't care, and quit feeding me your pseudo-jargon."

"It's not pseudo-jargon!"

"I don't care, Bart! I've noticed your mopeyness, Rob's noticed your mopeyness, Cyborg's noticed your mopeyness, and even _Raven_'s noticed your mopeyness."

"Raven's an empath. And she's more observant than you."

"That's beside the point! Now stop acting like Tim and tell me what's going on."

"Sure. So you can go blurt it out to the rest of the world, like you always do."

"I don't always do that."

"Yes, Kon, you do."

Silence. Then…

"Is that really what you think of me?"

* * *

I find myself constantly thinking back to everyone I loved before I came here, to college. What was important to me then isn't what's important to me now. I've got a new life and new friends. But they won't ever get me the same way the team got me either.

Of course, there are aspects that the team will never get. Well, except maybe Robin. But he's a Bat, and Bats are the exception to everything. Robin was indescribable. One minute he'd be hanging out with us, and the next minute he'd go completely into leader-mode. I've honestly never understood what being best friends with Kon and Bart does to him.

Superboy was also indescribable. I like to think that he and Bart were the comedians of the team. If I had a chance to be one of them, even for a day, I would take it. Kon always liked to be the team's brawn, but sometimes I think he gets tired of it all. He and Cassie always had something going after he left his girlfriend, but whether they ever got anywhere… I don't know. I'm oblivious now. I'm lost. I have no idea what's going on now, even though I've been doing my best to keep track.

Cassie was my best friend. Granted, I probably wasn't hers, but she filled a space that my mother couldn't. I couldn't tell my mother about anything; she would disapprove. I could tell _her_ anything. We would do traditional best friend-y things, like doing each other's nails and going shopping. We would gossip about boys and the rest of Young Justice. We would talk about the original three, Anita, Lobo, and the villains that we fought. There was a point in which Cassie admitted that she liked Bart, but that didn't last long.

Bart's not Impulse anymore. He's changed, and become Kid Flash. I loved him, and I miss him like hell. But when I left, I had to drop that crush. After all, that was all it was. A crush. I'm almost completely over it. And whenever I feel there's something missing in my life, I tell myself it isn't Bart. But another voice always whispers back that it could be.

There's no way I can find out now, though. Bart's not his old self, Kon's gone, and everyone else is moping. I miss the team, and there's no way I can ever have them back.

* * *

Yeah. It was exactly what Bart thought of Kon. Kon wasn't as self-centered and insensitive- no, scratch that- oblivious- as he was when it was just Young Justice. But Kon wouldn't get it. Bart just knew it.

"Dude. Seriously, is that what you think of me?"

"Kon, even if you _didn't_ tell anyone, you still wouldn't get it."

"Is it about the Titans not being Young Justice?"

Bart was over Young Justice when he knew things would never be that way again. But there was something wrong. Something missing. Bart didn't know what it was, he was just feeling this emptiness lately. He longed to tell Kon, but he wanted someone to tell him what to do.

"Want to take a run?"

Then again, maybe Kon _would _understand better than Bart thought he would.

I always have this feeling of emptiness.

It's the team. It's always the team. The team that will never be the same again. It's better, in some ways. Starfire and Beast Boy and Cyborg will be there for them. My absence is doing them good. If I go back now, I'll bring up memories that they don't need.

And why should I? They probably forgot about me. I think Bart's the only one that would still remember me. It's what I loved him for. Things always slipped his mind, but they always came back.

I need to see him again.

And with his luck, he'll be back.

But I can't dare to hope.

* * *

They flew.

Well, Kon flew and Bart ran, but he ran so fast it was practically flying.

Along the way, Bart told Kon what was going on. How he was feeling empty and sad some of the time.

And Kon told him that there was something missing from his life. Kon was no shrink, but Bart thought he might be right. And that something… might have just been a some_one_.

The first person Kon suggested was Max Mercury. But unbeknownst to everyone else, Bart occasionally talked to him through the Speed Force.

Then Kon suggested Donna Troy. But Bart didn't actually know Donna very well, even though he occasionally looked up to her as a mentor. After Donna, Kon suggested Wally. Wally was never around anymore, though, and Bart had come to terms with that. Barry, Helen, and Carol were also all suggested, but while Bart missed them, he had also come to terms with his leaving their lives.

Then Bart thought of Greta. Greta Hayes wasn't the Secret anymore, but she was still one of his oldest friends. He communicated with her on a regular basis, so she couldn't be the one either.

"It's Cissie." Without a doubt, it was the former Arrowette. Cissie King-Jones was someone Bart could always trust to talk to and not laugh at him. She was like the sister he never had. When she quit Young Justice, he was heartbroken.

"King-Jones? But we barely-" A sigh. "She left a long time ago."

"And now I have to go see her again. See what her life's like."

And he would. One of these days, he would go and visit Cissie King-Jones at her school.

But he never got around to it. The next thing he knew it was two weeks later and Kon was dead. He mourned his best friend and nearly forgot about his promise to himself to visit the former Arrowette. Nearly.

Bart didn't want to lose anyone else. He had just lost Kon, and he needed to go see Cissie before he lost her too, literally or otherwise. She could be his sister again, unless she didn't want to. Then he would leave. But at least he could get closure from someone.

He resolved, right then, to not run over to where she was as Kid Flash, but to take a train over to where she was as Bart Allen.


End file.
